Coffee for Life?

Imagine this; an accounting firm setting up its office in a café — and not just any café — one that’s owned and operated by the firm AND one that’s being crowd-funded right now.

And in Brisbane too!

Ben Walker is the Accountant involved. And you get a clue about Ben when you realise his 10-month old successful firm has an interesting name: INSPIRECA (where the ‘CA’ stands for ‘Chartered Accountant’. That naming flows through to the café too — not surprisingly now, it’s the INSPIRE Café.

You get to realise pretty quickly that Ben is, to say the least, a little different. Here’s how he puts it:

“Every week, I get to work with amazing, switched-on people running businesses. Some of them are start-ups, others are established. And it struck me that there’s got to be a way to bring professionals together. Somewhere you can have informal meetings, get your head down over your computer undisturbed when you need to focus, and hang out with peers. ‘Networking’ can feel artificial, but when you’re all in the same environment drinking great coffee it’s what you do naturally.”

Ben Walker’s enthusiasm is contagious. The accountant’s vision of a place for professionals to work, rest and play is bearing fruit in the form of the Inspire Café in Brisbane. The space is ripe for conversion, and Ben has had plans drawn up to give it a convivial vibe that suits your needs, whether you’re looking for a meeting venue, or somewhere to wind down with a beer before the weekend.

Not only is Ben’s vision innovative, so is his plan to fund it. The total cost of transforming the building he’s identified is around $200,000 – and he’s looking to raise half of that money in the next month through crowd-funding.

Crowd-funding has been populiarised over the past few years to provide funding for anything from films, political campaigns, musicians’ albums and a variety of new and innovative inventions. A study from Massolution has found that donation and reward-based funding grew by 85% to well over US$1B in 2012, seeing growth primarily in Europe and the United States.

 “What we’re aiming to do is involve people in the excitement of the Inspire Café before it’s open. We want to create a buzz. Our audience is business people, and we’re offering them the chance to invest in a place that can make a real difference to the way they do what they do,” says Ben.

Indiegogo is the site Ben has chosen for the venture, one that’s already established a strong reputation for gathering financial support for a wide range of successful projects. Backing the café will give supporters dollar-for-dollar credit at Inspire, to spend on world class coffee, and a tempting range of foods from the healthy to the indulgent. Not only this, but Ben has put together a “Coffee for Life” perk, where the supporter as suggested, receives coffee for the rest of their life; or the “No Brainer” where for $100 the supporter receives $1,000 in value of coffee for the next 10 years.

The team crewing Inspire will include seasoned baristas and waiting staff, and they’re clear that the  professional clientele deserve the very best service. Supporters of the campaign will also contribute to a project providing water for people in Africa needing access to fresh and hygienic supplies – if the funding target is reached, nearly a million people will be helped in this way.

With a Café Launch Party of 13 December to tie in the with INSPIRECA Christmas party, the team are excited to get things off the ground. Depending on tradesman and council sign offs, the café could see a soft launch in early December.

You can find the online campaign for the Inspire Café here - http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/inspire-cafe--3

Or Shortlink http://insp.ca/19T4k9U